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Topic: Question about a forum (Read 5053 times)

This is kind of a spin-off from the thread about CAF, but I figured I'd better put it in a new thread.

I was just wondering: have any of you participated on the E&W section at "Catholic Online Forum", and if so what was your impression of it?

Note: I believe answers to the latter question are allowed on a thread, but I'm not 100% certain (perhaps one of the moderators could speak to that point); if that's not allowed, you could send answers to me by pm.

But on a serious note, Jakub, I think you overestimate the appeal that OCnet has for Catholics. I submit for your consideration: Quite a few Catholics have posted on the other thread to say that CAF is completely unjustified in secretly banning posters, etc. But how many of said Catholics post on OCnet on a regular basis? Very few, as far as I can tell.

But on a serious note, Jakub, I think you overestimate the appeal that OCnet has for Catholics. I submit for your consideration: Quite a few Catholics have posted on the other thread to say that CAF is completely unjustified in secretly banning posters, etc. But how many of said Catholics post on OCnet on a regular basis? Very few, as far as I can tell.

Well, I think the appeal would/could change if there were more Catholic users (yes, a Catch-22 situation). At least here we don't secretly ban people or persecute an entire group based on their religious affiliation.

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"O Cross of Christ, all-holy, thrice-blessed, and life-giving, instrument of the mystical rites of Zion, the holy Altar for the service of our Great Archpriest, the blessing - the weapon - the strength of priests, our pride, our consolation, the light in our hearts, our mind, and our steps"Met. Meletios of Nikopolis & Preveza, from his ordination.

Well, I think the appeal would/could change if there were more Catholic users (yes, a Catch-22 situation).

I agree that having more Catholics around here would increase the appeal to an extent. But, to put it simply, why would the typical Catholic want to participate on a forum where e.g. Catholic converts from Orthodoxy are considered "apostates"?

I agree that having more Catholics around here would increase the appeal to an extent. But, to put it simply, why would the typical Catholic want to participate on a forum where e.g. Catholic converts from Orthodoxy are considered "apostates"?

Because (a) they're curious about Orthodoxy and looking for a good place to discuss it; (b) they're looking for just a friendly forum; (c) they like to debate and polemically discuss religion; (d) other. Why do Orthodox persist in participating on Catholic fora where e.g. Orthodox converts from Catholicism are considered "apostates?"

Hey, I said "at least," not "at most." I think we compare favorably with most fora.

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"O Cross of Christ, all-holy, thrice-blessed, and life-giving, instrument of the mystical rites of Zion, the holy Altar for the service of our Great Archpriest, the blessing - the weapon - the strength of priests, our pride, our consolation, the light in our hearts, our mind, and our steps"Met. Meletios of Nikopolis & Preveza, from his ordination.

Why do Orthodox persist in participating on Catholic fora where e.g. Orthodox converts from Catholicism are considered "apostates?"

I have never encountered such fora, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised by the existence of such (the internet being what it is).

Such fora (assuming they exist, obviously) are clearly going against the teachings of the Catholic Church: we consider EOs and OOs to be fellow Christians, so anyone who switches from Catholicism to Orthodoxy is at worst a schismatic and a heretic, not an apostate.

I never said otherwise. I was simply pointing out that your statement wasn't very flattering to OCnet. Kind of like if a boy said to his girlfriend, "You're better looking than my grandmother."

I honestly don't know why so many Orthodox post on CAF, nor have I encouraged them to do so. (Actually, on a few occasions I have suggested to Orthodox posters that participating on CAFish boards might not be such a good idea.)

Such fora (assuming they exist, obviously) are clearly going against the teachings of the Catholic Church: we consider EOs and OOs to be fellow Christians, so anyone who switches from Catholicism to Orthodoxy is at worst a schismatic and a heretic, not an apostate.

Oh, well, there's a relief. I'm not an apostate, I'm a just a schismatic heretic....phew!

I have never encountered such fora, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised by the existence of such (the internet being what it is).

Such fora (assuming they exist, obviously) are clearly going against the teachings of the Catholic Church: we consider EOs and OOs to be fellow Christians, so anyone who switches from Catholicism to Orthodoxy is at worst a schismatic and a heretic, not an apostate.

Blessings,Peter.

partial quote from Cleveland"Why do Orthodox persist in participating on Catholic fora where e.g. Orthodox converts from Catholicism are considered "apostates?"

Well, CAF is that place. Some stayed for a while merely to defend their brethren that had been banished as that place is heavily anti Orthodox and anti Eastern Catholic and a few Orthodox stay(ed) to defend Orthodoxy as much as they could.

Hey, just because I think that those who do not have an Orthodox understanding of the Holy Trinity worship a different god doesn't mean everyone else does.

I'm not entirely clear on how you became the focal point of the discussion; but certainly I agree with your statement: I see no reason to think that Cleveland bases his beliefs on your beliefs. (That Cleveland regards conversion from Orthodoxy to Catholicism as apostasy was an inference I made from his statement: "Even if one is very serious about leaving - i.e. taking catechism classes in another faith, talking about re-baptism, etc. - I still think they can avoid leaving and not be judged as apostates." I don't see any reference to you, ozgeorge, in that statement. Do you?)

This is kind of a spin-off from the thread about CAF, but I figured I'd better put it in a new thread.

I was just wondering: have any of you participated on the E&W section at "Catholic Online Forum", and if so what was your impression of it?

Note: I believe answers to the latter question are allowed on a thread, but I'm not 100% certain (perhaps one of the moderators could speak to that point); if that's not allowed, you could send answers to me by pm.

Thanks in advance to any and all responders, Peter.

What's E&W?

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Question a friend, perhaps he did not do it; but if he did anything so that he may do it no more.A hasty quarrel kindles fire,and urgent strife sheds blood.If you blow on a spark, it will glow;if you spit on it, it will be put out; and both come out of your mouth

This is kind of a spin-off from the thread about CAF, but I figured I'd better put it in a new thread.

I was just wondering: have any of you participated on the E&W section at "Catholic Online Forum", and if so what was your impression of it?

Peter,

Just noticed this thread and wanted to comment. I posted there, off and on, for a while. It was part of my crusade to assure that questions got accurate answers because, like the vast majority of Latin boards, there were few (if any) well-informed Eastern Christians posting there. At the time, the EC* forum (and I believe also the EO forum) was modded by a woman who was a convert from GO to Latin Catholicism. She obviously was not well-versed in her cradle faith and knew nothing, nada, zero, about Eastern Catholicism.

*yes, they had - and I believe still do - both an EC board and an EO board and never the twain shall cross

All in all, I was unimpressed - and, on my last visit there - some time ago, admittedly, nothing had changed for the better, except that someone else - with as little knowledge of the East was now modding both boards. The site belongs to Father Z (can't recollect his name), a rather traditional Latin priest who brooks little in the way of dissent from his personal opinions. He and I had a go-around - that I thought was going to get me banned - about my opinion that communal devotions of a Western/Latin nature (like the recitation of the Rosary) had no place in an EC parish pre-Divine Liturgy, however attached the Babas might be to them as a personal spiritual devotion.

I could not agree more with my brother, James. They are without a question the only two sites online, of which I'm aware, at which there is reasonable discussion opportunity afforded to both Eastern & Oriental Catholics and Orthodox, as well as to Latins who want to engage in honest discussion or make genuine inquiries to learn about the East.

Many years,

Neil

« Last Edit: May 05, 2008, 04:45:10 AM by Irish Melkite »

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"Not only is it unnecessary to adopt the customs of the Latin Rite to manifest one's Catholicism, it is an offense against the unity of the Church."

I can well believe it. About a month ago I spent a little (very little) time at COL myself, and if anything it might actually be worse now than what you described. (See e.g. this response to my statement that the Ruthenian Catholic Church's decision to say the creed sans filioque is a "step in the right direction".)

I have also spent a little [ very little ] time there - off and on for a couple of years .

Again it's one where folk with little actual knowledge post, and corrections do not go down well.

I can't even remember my log in there

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"Never let anyone try to tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must also be eastern. The West was fully Orthodox for a thousand years; and her venerable liturgy is far older than any of her heresies."- St. John Maximovitch

I can well believe it. About a month ago I spent a little (very little) time at COL myself, and if anything it might actually be worse now than what you described. (See e.g. this response to my statement that the Ruthenian Catholic Church's decision to say the creed sans filioque is a "step in the right direction".)

God bless,Peter.

I would like to think I was wrong about this, but I believe I was banned from there in about 2002 or 2003, although the color scheme (once a deep or rust red, I think) and artwork is quite different now. I was a Ruthenian Eastern Catholic at the time and I disputed some obscure point of European history connected with the Papacy. The moderator, someone named Mary, first disabled my ability to log in somehow for 24 hours while she blasted my position with a bunch of cut-and-pastes, then accused me of heresy and summarily banned me.

I remember posting about it on Byzcath at the time.

I know since that time it went to the dogs, because CAF started to draw almost the entire Latin Catholic internet community like a black hole and the usual suspects began turning up there. They cleaned out the old member lists and archives and started over. Now it has an entirely new look, with a lot of blue.

The place looks so different now, I hardly recognized it.

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"Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living" Jaroslav Pelikan

I would like to think I was wrong about this, but I believe I was banned from there in about 2002 or 2003, although the color scheme (once a deep or rust red, I think) and artwork is quite different now. I was a Ruthenian Eastern Catholic at the time and I disputed some obscure point of European history connected with the Papacy. The moderator, someone named Mary, first disabled my ability to log in somehow for 24 hours while she blasted my position with a bunch of cut-and-pastes, then accused me of heresy and summarily banned me.

I know since that time it went to the dogs, because CAF started to draw almost the entire Latin Catholic internet community like a black hole and the usual suspects began turning up there.

Ah ... I had been wondering why underneath "Catholic Online Forum" it always says "The first and largest interactive Catholic Forum on the web", when they are so obviously smaller than CAF.

I have to at least give CAF credit for a lot of nice discussion about Syriac (Chaldean, Maronite, Syro-Malabarese, etc.) Catholics, at least in the time that I've been there (which admittedly isn't very long). With COL I just decided that life is too short to spend any more time there.

The online forum I actually had my bad experiance with was called the Catholic Community Forum, I just found it although I will not post a link. They still have that same red color, but with a clean new look.

I am sorry I attributed the account of one bad forum to another ...how despicable.

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"Tradition is the living faith of the dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living" Jaroslav Pelikan

I have to at least give CAF credit for a lot of nice discussion about Syriac (Chaldean, Maronite, Syro-Malabarese, etc.) Catholics, at least in the time that I've been there (which admittedly isn't very long). With COL I just decided that life is too short to spend any more time there.

I petitioned a long time ago to change the ECF name to "Eastern/Oriental Christianity." No go. But now there seems to be a LOT more Oriental Christians there than Eastern Christians. Well, I'm happy. I just wish there are a lot more Eastern Christians with whom I can discuss comparative positions. I guess I can get that here. Hopefully, I'll have the time.